Information and computer technology comprise an essential component for modern business operations. The utility of computer technology has been enhanced by the coupling of computers with information networks such as the Internet and World Wide Web (“WWW”). Companies use computer facilities to engage in marketing campaigns using asynchronous communications such as e-mail, letters and facsimiles (FAXes).
Successful business operations in the global marketplace require a systematic approach for formulating and optimizing global sourcing strategy. For example, strategic sourcing capabilities allow purchasers to negotiate the best terms and conditions by inviting qualified bidders to submit their proposed bids and then evaluating these bids.
To automatically evaluate proposed bids, the purchaser enters information into a bidding system about the items that are desired. The purchaser may also enter quantitative weight numbers associated with the item or attributes of the item indicating the importance of the item or attribute. The purchaser may need to ensure that the sum of the quantitative weight numbers are equal to 100 and may need to enter an algorithm. When a bid is received, the bidding system uses this information to calculate a value indicating the degree that the bid matches the purchaser's request. The computation uses a linear algorithm.
A problem with this system is that weight numbers are not intuitive. The purchaser is forced to add a lot of quantitative weight numbers although the purchaser may be accustomed to thinking of the item as important or not important or characteristics of the item as good or not so good. If the purchaser wants to change a weight number, another weight number might also need to be changed. Additionally, the user might also choose the linear function to be used in the computation. Overall, the system is very inflexible and difficult to use, which may cause poor results.